The gatekeeper said: "You are certainly not old, nor tall, though you talk like all the hoary sages. Get out." Ashtavakra replied: "Gate-keeper, Grey hairs do not prove the ripeness of the soul.

The really mature man is the one who has learnt the Vedas and the Vedangas, mastered their gist and realised their essence. I am here to meet the court pandit Vandi.

Inform King Janaka of my desire." At that moment the king himself came there and easily recognized Ashtavakra, the precociously wise boy he had met before.

The king asked: "Do you know that my court pandit Vandi has overthrown in argument many great scholars in the past and caused them to be cast into the ocean? Does not that deter you from this dangerous adventure?"